Friday Evening in Sarasota - As I look out my office window I see the sun is setting on what has been another spectacular Southwest Florida winter day. Through the wall I hear music coming from the Lemon Avenue Mall (it must be First Friday), proof that the days when outdoor music was banished downtown are truly behind us. All in all life is pretty good in Sarasota for the vast majority of us, and for those for whom it might not be there is great energy in this community to try to make a difference for them as well. No message, no agenda, and no point of view here, just call it a brief stop to smell the roses. Have a great weekend, Sarasota!

NOTICE OF BLOG-POLICE ACTION! -- O.K. bloggers, you've blown up the civility code. I've deleted a number of posts that were personal rather than issue related. And it does not work to say that it's about the issue while you call someone names.

For C. Johnson who said "It is hollow and McNees should be smarter than allowing this false dialog. Perhaps it serves his purpose?", don't worry, you can still attack me if you want. I've left your post up.

Now can we please clean it up and advance the discussion, not the attacks?

Pineapple Square - Obviously there's a great deal of interest in the city's decision to move this project forward. Rather than continue the thread on my previous post, I'll just put the heading up here. This is a very interesting project, to say the least, so let's talk about the issues, what you think, and why. As far as the politics go, and who should or shouldn't be elected or re-elected, my suggestion is that someone start a local political blog; I suspect it would be very popular!